


Pixar

by ChimaeraKitten



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, No editing we die like mne, Pixar, non-linear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-21 23:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13751868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChimaeraKitten/pseuds/ChimaeraKitten
Summary: Sometimes, favorite movies are influenced less by the movie itself, and more by the people one shared it with. (batfam + Favorite Pixar movies)





	Pixar

**Author's Note:**

> crossposted from tumblr, where it was posted in seven parts.

“So,” Dick said, standing by the TV. “Who’s ready for family movie night?”

Jason groaned, sinking into the couch. “I still don’t understand why we aren’t doing this next week, like we planned.”

Damian sat up, “We’re celebrating Drake’s pitiful achievement of returning from space with all his limbs still attached.”

Cass flicked him. “We’re happy to have all little brothers home at the same time.” She chided.

Damian grumbled.

Dick tossed the remote from one hand to the other. “Cass is right, as usual. It’s been ages since everyone was home at the same time.”

“Everyone’s still going to be home next week.” Tim said.

“As much as I hate to side with him,” Jason said, “Dick’s got a point. There’s at least a 98% chance that there’ll be some cosmic catastrophe between now and next Friday.”

Dick grinned. “Thank you, Jason. As I was _saying_ , family movie night, we’ve got to pick a movie before Bruce gets up here, or he’ll pick some weird French emo thing.”

Jason snorted. “He used to have good taste.”

“That’s because all you watched together were movie adaptations of books.”

“ _Holes_ is a fucking masterpiece of adaptation. It’s almost as good as the book.”

“ _How to Train Your Dragon_ managed to be better than the book,” Tim noted.

“Little kid’s books don’t count!”

“GUYS!” Dick yelled, before they could devolve into a full-blown fight. “We need to pick a movie. I’m thinking Pixar, since we all need to relax.”

Jason and Damian started to protest, but Cass, who was seated between them, reached out and covered both their mouths. “Brave,” she said.

Tim groaned. “You always pick _Brave_!”

“I like it,” Cass said simply.

Dick shook his head. “Sorry Cass, but that was the last Pixar movie we watched. I was gonna say _Up_.”

Tim narrowed his eyes. “You just want to see if anyone cries when Ellie dies.”

“I just want to watch it!” Dick said.

“Uh-huh.”

Jason pulled Cass’s hand away from his mouth. “Monsters inc.” he said.

“What?” Dick asked.

“I vote _Monsters inc_.” Jason said.

“Tt. Damian said, also removing Cass’s hand, “Clearly _Finding Nemo_ is the superior film.”

“What about _The Incredibles_?” Tim asked.

“You just like that one because you’re the villain.” Jason accused.

“Nothing wrong with a good self-insert.” Tim said, “Besides. I know for a fact that you project on Boo.”

While Jason sputtered, Dick turned to the DVD case. “What do you guys think about Toy Story?”

“Toy Story 3.” A voice rumbled.

Dick looked up, “Bruce! I thought I was going to have to drag you out of the cave.”

Bruce smiled tightly. “I can managed to put down work for a little while.”

Translation: Alfred forced him.

“Anyway,” Dick said, “We couldn’t agree on a Pixar move to watch.”

“Brave,” Cass repeated from the couch, causing her brothers to launch right back into campaigning for their favorites.

Bruce met Dick’s eyes over the din. ‘ _Toy Story three_ ,’ he mouthed.

Dick grinned and pulled out the DVD case.

* * *

The first time Dick watched _Up_ , he’d been almost twenty, and well into his adult life. He’d come back to the manor in the middle of patrol time to pick up some stuff from his room. That way, he wouldn’t have to see Bruce or Jason. He liked the kid, really, but it was easier to just avoid both of them.

He was pretty surprised when the manor door swung open on Bruce’s haggard face rather than Alfred’s welcoming one.

“Dear God!” Dick exclaimed, “What happened?” He usually heard when Bruce was injured through the grapevine or Alfred, but it was possible he’d missed something.

But Bruce just shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Jason has the flu.”

Dick blinked. “Is he alright?”

“He’s through the worst of it, and spitting mad about missing school.”

“I’ll bet.”

The conversation stalled for a moment.

“So, are you going to let me in, or…”

Bruce blinked. “Right.” He stepped out of the way of the door. “Come in.” He paused, hesitant. “We already had dinner, but I doubt Alfred would mind getting out leftovers.”

Dick attempted a smile, “I’m just here to pick up a few things.”

Bruce’s face didn’t _fall_ , precisely (Bruce’s face didn’t do emotions like that) but he radiated disappointment nonetheless.

Dick attempted to bring the mood back up, “I’ll say hi to Alfred and the kiddo before a leave.”

Bruce nodded. “We’re in the theater.”

Dick went upstairs and grabbed his stuff (a couple of posters and a small stack of books he wanted in his room at the tower) and then walked back downstairs towards the theater, intending to just stick his head in and wave goodbye.

But when he got there, He could see Bruce on the couch and Alfred in the chair, but no sign of Jason.

“Where’s Jay?”

Bruce looked up, unable to hide his smile, “Who?” he said innocently.

If Dick had time, he would have said the tried-and-true ‘He’s right behind me, isn’t he?’ But he didn’t have time, and then there was a screech and something rammed his back at high speed. Dick, arms laden with books, was unable to stop himself from falling on his face.

“Hello Jason,” he said, face buried in the carpet, “I thought you were sick.”

There was a sniffling sound somewhere close to Dick’s ear. “Bruce says I am.”

“School policy is you have to wait 24 hours after throwing up.” Bruce intoned.

Dick felt a knee or maybe an elbow dig into his back before Jason’s weight vanished.

“I feel fine!”

“Well,” Dick said, sitting up. “I should head out,”

Jason did a very convincing pout, which would have been more convincing if Dick didn’t know that Jason could incapacitate a man twice his size in three seconds flat. “I thought you were going to watch a movie with us.”

Dick shot a glare at Bruce, but the man just shrugged and mouthed, _‘his idea.’_

Dick looked at Jason, making a split second decision. “Depends on what you’re watching.”

“ _Holes_ ,’ Jason said, without hesitation.

Bruce coughed. “We already reached this month’s _Holes_ quota, remember?”

“But I’m _sick_ ,” Jason whined.

Bruce was unmoved. “We have the new Pixar movie.”

Dick perked up, “Oh, I’ve been wanting to watch that one!”

“Indeed, I have been anticipating that one as well.”

Everyone jumped. They’d forgotten Alfred was in the room.

Seeing that he was outnumbered, Jason relented. “Okay.”

Dick and Jason got settled on the couch while Bruce started the movie.

Jason leaned over and whispered, “Thanks for staying. Bruce gets all grumpy when you leave.”

Dick grinned. “Oh yeah? And he’s the only one?”

Jason flushed and elbowed him. “Shh, the movie’s starting.”

Somewhere around when Mr. Fredrickson learned how to be happy again, Dick looked around the room and thought that maybe this was all right. He’d probably fight with Bruce again next time, but that was okay, because right now it felt like the four of them were a family.

* * *

_Monsters Inc._ wasn’t even the first Pixar movie Jason watched after he got to the manor. No, It was much more special, because it was the movie he and Bruce watched together after Jason’s first night as Robin.

It hadn’t been all that eventful a night in hindsight. Jason ‘met’ Commissioner Gordon (it wasn’t like he’d met the guy a dozen times before, or anything) then watched Bruce stop two muggings and interrogate a drug dealer. Nothing special, but to Jason, that night had been one of daring adventure, high stakes, and narrow escapes. It was no wonder that he was too hopped up on adrenaline to sleep.

Bruce had taken one look at him when they got home and sent him up to the movie theater with the promise to join him for a movie.

Jason parted with his cape and mask with only a small amount of regret and ran upstairs, cartwheeling down the hall, much to Alfred’s dismay.

He was attempting a handstand on the back of the couch when Bruce came in.

“Ready for a movie?”

“Hell ye—woah!”

Bruce managed to catch him before he face planted on the floor. “Maybe we should sit on the couch the way it was intended.”

Jason pouted. “That’s no fun.”

Bruce dumped him on the couch. “Tough luck kiddo.”

Promptly forgetting his unhappiness, Jason chirped, “So what are we watching?”

Bruce eyed him. “I’d have thought you already had _Holes_ queued up.”

Jason scoffed. “I want to broaden my horizons.”

“Alfred hid the DVD, didn’t he.”

Jason slumped forward. “Yes.”

Bruce chuckled and sat down next to him. “Pixar?”

Jason brightened. “I’ve never seen _Monsters Inc_.”

Bruce grinned. “Monsters it is.”

Halfway through the movie, Jason leaned over and whispered, “I dare you to use the ‘my tender oozing blossom’ line next time we fight Ra’s.”

Jason felt gratified at the way Bruce snorted. “I’ll consider it.”

* * *

Cass was introduced to animation relatively late in her Batgirl tenure. Movies of all types tended to rely on dialogue too much for her to truly understand them, and even the best actors still looked wrong to her on screen. It took a long time for Bruce to realize that that particular problem didn’t extend to animation.

When he finally did, she came home to the manor one day to find him sitting on the couch in the theater room with an enormous bucket of popcorn and their entire Disney/Pixar collection spread out in front of him.

“Hey Cass,” He said with that expression that looked deadpan to everyone else but screamed welcome and joy to her. “Care to join me?”

She looked at the DVDs. “Movies?” She asked, skeptical.

Bruce nodded. “Tim said you watched _Avatar the Last Airbender_ with him and enjoyed it.”

She nodded, not seeing the connection. “The characters were… expressive.”

“I was thinking,” Bruce said, “We could see what other animated things you like.”

Cass crossed the room and sat on the couch. “Alright.”

Bruce smiled, looking down at the spread of movies. “Which one would you like to watch?”

Cass looked at the covers. “Describe them for me.”

“Well, this one is about a girl who moves into a castle with a beast and falls in love with him.”

Cass shook her head.

“Okay, well this one is about a deer faun growing up.”

“Is it sad?”

“Yes.”

Cass wrinkled her nose. “No.”

“This one is about a girl rejecting her parents’ vision for her future and following her own path. And also turning her mother into a bear.”

Cass smiled. “That one.”

Bruce stacked up the rest of the movies and went to put it in the DVD player. “Tell me to stop it if you don’t like it.”

“Okay.”

They watched the entire movie in a comfortable silence. Just the way both of them preferred it. It wasn’t until the credits rolled that either of them spoke.

“Did you like it?”

Cass grinned. “Yes.”

“I’m glad.”

“If you were turned into a bear,” Cass said, “I’d save you.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

She eyed him up. “No, you’re right.”

He nodded, standing up.

“You’d get turned into a bat.”

Bruce had a sudden coughing fit.

* * *

When Tim had first put in _The Incredibles_ , it had been out of a sense of irony. It had been a late patrol, and an even later night of investigation, and Tim had long sense given up on getting home before the sun rose.

Or well, he gave up when he realized there was no way he was going to drag Bruce away from the computer.

He looked up every few minutes, making sure Bruce’s muttering was still case-related and not health-related, but he seemed fine so far.

Tim slumped down in his chair. His self-appointed keep-Bruce-alive job did have its drawbacks. One of which was sitting in the cave at three in the morning with nothing to do because Bruce wouldn’t let him touch the case files.

It was with this in mind that Tim had stashed some DVDs down here a few months back, and it was with one last check on Bruce that he dug them out of the back of the medical cabinets.

There weren’t that many options. Alfred would have noticed if he’d taken any of the manor’s DVDs, so all he had were the few they had at home. There were a few of his dad’s archaeology documentaries, Fifty First Dates (still in the plastic wrapper), Die Hard, and a handful of family movies his parents bought years before intending to watch with him. They never had.

It was on the last few that Tim focused, knowing the documentaries would put him to sleep and not particularly in the mood for the others. The remaining options weren’t good. He suspected that half of them were not the movies his parents had intended to buy, but rather knock-offs designed to trick an unsuspecting shopper. Of what remained, _The Incredibles_ at least seemed like it would be funniest to Tim, what with the superheroes and all.

He popped it into his laptop, and was so engrossed by the midpoint that he didn’t notice Bruce had moved until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Tim jumped.

“Sorry I kept you Tim. Do you need a ride home?”

Tim smiled. Six months ago Bruce might not have noticed Tim was still in the cave at all. He popped his earbuds out of his ears and shook his head. “Nah, I figured I’d just shower here and go straight to school. Dad won’t notice.”

Bruce frowned. “I’d still prefer you get a bit of rest at home.”

Tim glanced at the clock on his computer. “I’d have to be up in a couple hours anyway. If I sleep that long I’ll just be groggy. I’ll be fine”

“Hnn.”

Tim stood and stretched. “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

Tim felt eyes on his back all the way to the lockers.

As much as he’d acted wide-awake for Bruce, Tim nearly fell asleep twice under the hot spray of the water. After the second time, he conceded that he wasn’t going to get any cleaner, and got out.

When he got back out to the main cave, he was surprised to not see Bruce anywhere. He walked over to the main computer console, confused, to find his laptop sitting open next to the keyboard. Bruce had opened a Word Document and typed, “You’ll be warmer watching your movie in the living room.” Tim checked the disc drive and laughed. The DVD was gone.

Tim closed the laptop and stumbled up the stairs, expecting to find his movie paused at the exact place he’d paused it before in an empty room. Instead, he found Bruce watching the beginning. He looked up when Tim entered.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “I haven’t seen this one.”

Tim opened his mouth and closed it again. He wondered if Bruce had watched other kids’ movies with Dick and Jason. He had to have, hadn’t he?

Tim sank into the opposite end of the couch from Bruce. “It’s a bit silly.”

Bruce grunted. “I don’t know. ‘Bomb Voyage’ is a better name than ‘The Riddler.’”

Tim snickered, fighting to keep his eyes open. “Suck it, Eddie.”

By the time Mr. Incredible caught Syndrome monologuing, Tim was fast asleep. He didn’t notice Bruce pause the movie and drape the throw blanked from the back of the couch over him, or hear Bruce asking Alfred to call Mr. Drake and inform him that Tim was “sick.”

* * *

Between the circumstances of Damian’s arrival, his father’s presumed death and Damian’s own departure from the land of the living, it was unsurprising that he hadn’t had many opportunities to, as Grayson would put it, “hang out” with his father one-on-one. He’d watched more than a few animated films with Grayson, but he always found them banal and childish.

So it was with no small amount of surprise that he observed his father willingly watching colorful characters frolic about on screen.

Damian decided to chalk it up to the painkillers father was on for his bruised ribs and turned to go.

“Damian, wait.”

Evidently Father was more alert than Damian had thought. “Yes Father?”

Father groaned and sat up a bit, patting the couch next to him. “Come join me.”

Damian hesitated, but eventually perched on the edge of the couch.

“Do you require something of me Father?”

Father shook his head. “What movie would you like to watch?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Movies, Damian. What would you like?”

Damian shrugged stiffly. “I have no preference. Whatever you are currently watching is acceptable.”

Father grunted. “I’ll at least go back to the beginning for you.”

Damian opened his mouth to protest—going back to the beginning would indicate he was to actually pay attention to the film—but he stopped at the look on his father’s face. He was clearly trying to conceal pain. Damian wondered if he had taken any painkillers at all.

“What is this one about?” Damian asked instead, as Father fiddled with the remote.

“Fish,” Father said.

“ _Fish_ ,” Damian repeated, incredulous. “Why would anyone watch a movie about _fish_?”

“It’s good,” Father said, “You’ll see.”

And Damian did.

* * *

When Bruce told Dick to play _Toy Story Three_ , he’d mostly been hoping to head off an argument, but it had ultimately been a success, despite the tears shed during its climax. What was more of a surprise was the fact that nobody seemed particularly interested in leaving after the credits rolled.

Cass had curled up like a cat and was nearly asleep, while Tim was checking his phone and didn’t look like he intended to move. Damian and Dick were arguing softly about something, and Jason was picking bits of popcorn out of his coat.

“Hey, Jay,” Bruce said softly, trying not to wake Cass.

Jason froze. “Yeah?”

“Mind queuing up another one?”

Jason stood. “Sure. You want _Ratatouille_ or _WALL-E_?”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Not Monsters Inc?”

Jason glanced around the room. “I’m pretty sure if I snuck my favorite in I’d get stabbed.”

“You would be correct in that assumption Todd.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “See?”

Bruce looked around, at his sons relaxing, at his daughter sleeping, and at Alfred bringing in another bowl of popcorn. “Yeah. I see.”


End file.
